Phulbari in Northern Bangladesh
\nThe rice bowl of their soul
\nWonderful agricultural land
\nWhere the Santal take their role
\nAn indigenous tribe of people
\nAncestral their belief
\nWorshipping their idols
\nAnd the natural world
\nTrue grief
\nTo hear the British
\nAre coming
\n60 square miles they need
\nOf fertile agricultural land
\nWhere many souls now feed<\/p>\n
Upon this arable soulful soil
\nWith established production high
\nEighty percent is fertile
\nThe question really why
\nCould anyone be insane enough
\nTo destroy a paradise
\nAnd turn it over to open cast
\nMining ahead of rice<\/p>\n
Coal is filthy energy
\nIt makes no sense at all
\nExcept ofcourse for money
\nThe idea does appal
\nThis area grows rice and wheat
\nMaize and potato’s too
\nBRinjal and tomato’s
\nLychees Mango’s which do
\nFeed a lot of people
\nBananas JAckfruits they
\nWith blackberries
\nAre specialist fruits
\nAny time of day<\/p>\n
20,000 people at least
\nA lot of ponds
\n80,000 trees
\n36’000 homes and barns
\nIt sounds like a disease
\nFor all of this would be destroyed
\nTo accomodate this vile
\n500 mw power plant
\nIts clearly off the dial<\/p>\n
At Barapukaria already
\n1500 tons of cosl per day
\nBut a giant wanted here
\nWould decimate and do away
\nWith just so much ancestral Land
\nCommitted to so much
\nWhat amounts to industrialization
\nImpractical as such<\/p>\n
The loss to local people
\nImpossible to bear
\nThe project was aborted
\nIn 2006 aware
\nThere were umpteen protests
\nBefore and so to think
\nAnyone would bring this back
\nIt takes us to the brink<\/p>\n
Open cast is a madness
\nAn unbelievable scar
\nThat would ruin All this fertile land
\nWhere so many people are
\nIts spurious to tell them
\nThat Bangladesh would be
\nBetter off
\nWhich is nothing more
\nThan confounded sophistry<\/p>\n
Live ammunition was used on
\nThe protestors recently
\nKilling six and injuring
\nMany all of them who be
\nBlatantly involved
\nBy living and working there
\nThe prospect is unthinkable
\nAnd produces such despair<\/p>\n
The unembroidered facts here
\nAre clearly very high
\nNothing should be kept back
\nFrom the people lets apply
\nThe region and its people
\nHow dare the Brtish say
\nThat Bangladesh would be better off
\nThat is arrogant and way<\/p>\n
Off the point of reference
\nThat existed then and now
\nIt defaces and eliminates
\nThe natural world and how
\nCould any thinking caring
\nBody of people dare to say
\nThat such a venture
\nWould be positive in any single way<\/p>\n
Coal produces methane
\nA dirty damaging gas
\nCausative of climate change
\nAnd working that enmasse
\n8 million tonnes to be transported
\nIn rail and barges to
\nAn offshore re-losding facility
\nAnd, what would that do<\/p>\n
The environment would further suffer
\nThe air quality too
\nA plague upon the community
\nMalignancies anew
\nCrippling contamination
\nA bleak and calamitous sore
\nthat mother nature created
\nBut was Lost for evermore<\/p>\n
Why is it local people have so little rights
\nThey have worked this land for ages
\nAnd they do have sights
\nOn its true friability
\nAnd to watch the open cast
\nCoal Just smother everything
\nThey had built up
\nPermanent flags hung at half mast <\/p>\n
Forever over such a scheme
\nWhich bears no resemblance to
\nWhat had been a catharsis
\nAnd what they wanted to do
\nWas steal the very essence
\nAll the blood and sweat
\nAll the ancestral promise
\nThat on this land was set<\/p>\n
GCM they call themselves
\nFormely Asia Energy
\nWant to take Phulbari region
\nAnd destroy its credibility
\nSquander its fertility
\nDissipate its worth
\nReplace it with such lethargy
\nAn unresponsive birth<\/p>\n
To then create a purgatory
\nA wretchedness beyond
\nAny nightmares ever spoke of
\nWith no where to abscond
\nIt makes no sense on gods earth
\nTo ruin the sublime
\nWith hideousness and disfigurement
\nFor the rest of time<\/p>\n
Not any amount of money
\nCan replace the damage done
\nIts so evil to suggest that
\nSatanic mills the sun
\nCannot adjust the frightfulness
\nThat will be left behind
\nWhen All the coal is exctracted
\nAnd most have lost their mind<\/p>\n
Go back to where you came from
\nSuch ugliness we see
\nNot just in the planning stages
\nBut what comes eventually
\nPollution on a scale so high
\nCompared to what we now possess
\nWe do not wish to see this
\nComplete unsightliness.<\/p>\n
“Paddy piled up high
\nSheds full of cows
\nPonds brimming with fish”<\/p>\n
“Gola bhora dhan
\nGoyal bhora goru
\nPukur bhora macuj”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Phulbari in Northern Bangladesh The rice bowl of their soul Wonderful agricultural land Where the Santal take their role An indigenous tribe of people Ancestral their belief Worshipping their idols And the natural world True grief To hear the British … Continue reading